


don't need a telescope to see that there's hope

by taizi



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Post-Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 03:31:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8234564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taizi/pseuds/taizi
Summary: You’ve always known he was smart – some of your earliest memories are of Sans teaching you to read, patiently guiding your smaller fingerbones across the pages of Fluffy Bunny. Sans now is similar to Sans then, bright and excited and full of potential, doing the work he loves; and you had no idea until recently just how much you’ve missed this limitless version of the person you know best.





	

“HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY HOW PROUD I AM OF YOU?” you ask abruptly, and Sans glances up from the assignments he’s grading at the kitchen table. His permanent skeletal grin widens into something more voluntary, something amused.

“sure have, bro. today, even. twice since breakfast.”

“WELL, MAKE THAT THREE TIMES. AND DON’T YOU FORGET IT!” you tell him severely, wagging your stirring spoon at him. He laughs outright, pleased-sounding, and your soul warms.

Sans has really opened up since the barrier fell – initially, he blamed the fresh air and sunshine, but you saw right through him (UGHH) and told him in no uncertain terms how _great_ you thought it was that he was finally letting his friends get under his skin.

(He was torn between bright joy at the bad joke and an automatic urge to deny he had friends. The result was a brief, silent struggle that ended somewhere in the middle of a reluctant smile; and, even though you’ve been winning smiles from him all your life, you knew better than to take one of _those_ for granted.)

He’s been happier here Above, and _busier._ It took him a few weeks to find his groove, where it took Undyne a few minutes at most, and those first days saw him moving with slow, ginger uncertainty, like someone waiting for the rug to be yanked out from under their feet – but now he’s settled into his job at the human university, teaching quantum physics and monster magic, and running a lab with Alphys. And it sounds complicated and looks a little boring, but he has such a good time there.

You’ve always known he was smart – some of your earliest memories are of Sans teaching you to read, patiently guiding your smaller fingerbones across the pages of Fluffy Bunny. Sans now is similar to Sans then, bright and excited and full of potential, doing the work he loves; and you had no idea until recently just how much you’ve missed this limitless version of the person you know best.

You’re so happy to see him so happy that it makes _you_ feel a little limitless, too – a little like there’s nothing you wouldn’t do to protect this rare and impossible joy that belongs to your brother.

“i don’t think you’ll let me forget, pap,” Sans says fondly – casually the most familiar and important thing to you that even exists under this wide sky, and totally unaware of the fact. You go back to assembling lunch, nodding in a perfunctory way.

Of _course_ you won’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't need a telescope / to see that there's hope / and that makes me feel brave


End file.
